Editor's Note:
The Latin American Video Archive (LAVA) is dedicated to facilitating the distribution of Latin American independent and nacional film/video to universities and libraries in the united States. Contact us at 124 Washington Place, NY NY 10014, phone 212-243-4804, fax 212-243-2007, email info@lavavideo.org. Our website at www.latinamericanvideo.org lists thousands of Latin American related titles and is updated daily.

Chilean Features

Candy or Mint (Toffee or Mint)   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Gonzalo Justiniano
Feature   86 minutes   1990
With English subtitles
This film chronicles the descent of two teenagers, Niki and Nacho, into a world of prostitution, violence, drugs, and crime. Made as the 17-year dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet came to an end, the film satirizes the dismal choices of the post-Pinochet generation, whose indulgence in petty crime and empty sex betray a larger sense of boredom and desperation.
Purchase Price: $ 200.00


Amnesia   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Gonzalo Justiniano
Feature   90 minutes   1994
With English subtitles
In this Kafka-esque drama set in Chile, Ramirez is a low-ranking soldier who, while he was stationed at a prison camp in the desert, was forced by a sadistic sergeant to shoot prisoners. But will murdering the murderer really help Ramirez come to terms with his past? The director explains that he made the film to "counter general amnesia" in Chile. "There exists a constant desire to forget, an attitude of stubbornly forging ahead without looking back," he says.
Purchase Price: $ 200.00


Frontier, The   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Ricardo Larrain
Feature   113 minutes   1991
With English subtitles
During Chile's military dictatorship, Ramiro Orellana is sentenced to internal exile in Chile's desolate south. The urban schoolteacher finds himself in a lonely, isolated village that nevertheless resonates with him as he befriends the quirky inhabitants and explores the majestic landscape. This outstanding first feature by director Ricardo Larrain won best script at the Havana Film Festival and the Silver Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival in 1990. "Despite the serious theme, the film is often quietly hilarious and it delights in the absurd." -- Timothy Barnard, South American Cinema: A Critical Biography
Purchase Price: $ 99.95

Brazil: Titles from Riofilme

Belly Up   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Beto Brant
Feature   90 minutes   1997
With English subtitles
BELLY UP is an imaginative mixture of genres which never stops surprising -- and amusing -- by deftly turning cliches upside down. The film focuses on the ethics that exist in the universe of professional killers, in which professionalism is measured by the number of missions accomplished no matter who the target is. Based on a short story by Marcal Aquino, we show a conflict between two professional killers operating along the border between Brazil and Paraguay.
Purchase Price: $ 150.00


Perfumed Ball   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Lirio Ferreira & Paulo Caldas
Feature   93 minutes   1997
With English subtitles
Based on a true story, Perfumed Ball tells the story of one of Brazil's most infamous outlaws "The Cangaceiros". Set in the 1930's, the film follows Benjamin Abrahao, a Lebanese immigrant. A filmmaker and photographer, Abrahao sees an opportunity for fame and fortune in the elusive Lampiao, one of the "cangaceiros'" infamous leaders. Abrahao manages to track down Lampiao at his camp and talks him into becoming the subject of a documentary film. Abrahao captures Lampiao's private life on film from the blood thirsty murders to leading his fellow cangaceiros in prayer. Abrahao returns to Rio de Janeiro where his film is an immediate success. However, he soon finds his life in danger when one of his backers claims the film is unpatriotic. An entertaining and fresh film filled with hilarious dialogue and top-notch performances.
Purchase Price: $ 150.00


How To Be Single In Rio   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Rosane Svartman
Feature   93 minutes   1997
With English subtitles
Welcome to South America, somewhere below the Equator, the country is Brazil; the city, Rio de Janeiro; the season, summer. The thermometer shouts 40 degrees Celsius. Very hot. The colors are brighter, the clothes are smaller. Julia, Ricardo, Monica and Claudio were born and raised here. Natives of a city stereotyped as being beautiful, sensuous, and violent. In different ways, the four react and adapt to their natural habitat the best way they can. This sweet and sensual comedy is the story of these four characters who survive the joys and traumas of being single in Rio de Janeiro.
Purchase Price: $ 150.00


Here we Are, Waiting For You   Get Details
Marcelo Masagao
Documentary   73 minutes   1998
With English subtitles
According to director Marcelo Masagao, NOS QUE AQUI ESTAMOS, POR VOS ESPERAMOS is a 'documentary memory' of the 20th century. The film largely consists of archive footage: extracts from classical films, news reports and photographs, complemented by photographs and images that Masagao made especially for the film. The subject of the film is, in short, the history of the 20th century. Great themes that have shaped this century are brought up: wars, the industrial development and modern art. The film is made up of short chapters, centering on the lives of all kinds of people. Both great and unknown names, even fictitious lives are reviewed.These stories are not presented as a chronological enumeration of facts. The film has the capricious structure of a dream or a memory, with unexpected leaps to and fro in time, an associative edit, complemented by suggestive music by Wim Mertens. A voice-over is missing, but still words play an important role via texts that appear in various places in the frame. The general framework, the main structural principle of the film, is composed of images of a cemetery somewhere in Brazil. We see photographs of tombstones with portraits of the deceased, to which the filmmaker adds - fictitious - names and years of birth and death. Masagao builds his scenes around these images, linking the lives of all these individuals to the history of the century they lived in.The title was taken from the gate of a cemetery located in a small town in the state of Sao Paulo. This psychologist, poet, and filmmaker spent 2000 hours in the editing room making this remarkable work of beauty.


One Thousand and One   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Susana Moraes
Feature     1996
With English subtitles
Lewis Carrol's Alice and the French Marcel Duchamp travel in the land of eroticism and absurdness. Alice is an independent and corageous woman facing difficulties to make her dream come true: a film about the artist Marcel Duchamp. Antonio is a musician who Alice meets and chooses to play the role of Duchamp. A little bit of romance, a little of police adventure and lots of vaudeville.
Purchase Price: $ 150.00


Believe Me   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Bia Lessa & Dany Roland
Feature   75 minutes   1996
With English subtitles
BELIEVE ME transposes Thomas Mann's classic story "The Holy Sinner" into the landscapes of Ceará, in the Brazilian northeast. The film is an expressionistic, mostly spontaneous treatment of the story performed by the people of Ceará, using their own characteristic intonation, their songs and their magical instruments. Shot with very scarce material resources and in Super Hi-8, the spellbinding perfomances and passionate and colorful scenes make this a magnificent, lyrical, unique, and audacious work of two novice directors.
Purchase Price: $ 150.00

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